Harvesting scallops and shucking them by removing the scallop meats from the bivalve shells and then removing the viscera from the adductor muscle has been the subject of considerable activity for many years in order to provide a higher quality edible product which is more uniform while not appreciably increasing processing costs. Many scallops have insulating barnacles or other encrustations on the shells that create problems in shucking to remove the scallop meats. The size of scallops and their tenacity to be shucked will vary considerably depending upon geographical location, age, depth of water in which the scallops are located, water temperatures, among other variable factors including shell density.
In the larger varieties, such as sea scallops, shucking is usually performed manually at sea on board a ship with the shells and viscera being dumped overboard while in the smaller varieties, such as calico scallops, they are harvested at sea, and processed usually in land-based shucking and eviscerating processing plants.
It is highly likely that mechanized shipboard installations will incorporate equipment presently being used in land-based processing facilities to eliminate some of the objectionable problems of handling viscera, shells and pollution experienced in land-based operations. The resulting end product when processed within a short time after harvesting aboard ship should result in a higher quality end product. Frequently, however, many scallops die after harvesting before reaching the land-based processing plant while other scallops may deteriorate substantially before processing enroute to the processing plant. Also, it is well-known that scallops are considerably more difficult to shuck whether manually or mechanically. Usually a strong impact or shock is required to open a small, live scallop in order to separate the scallop meats from the bivalve shell. Various impacting or shocking methods have been employed with varying results. The harvested older scallops, whether dead or partially deteriorated, require less impact or shock to separate the scallop meat from the bivalve. In some procedures, a mass of scallops is subjected to elevated temperatures initially and then followed thereafter by a shock impact treatment in an effort to break the hinge of the bivalve in order to remove the meat from the shell. Frequently, however, the heat to which the scallop meats are subjected will be sufficiently high to affect or at least partially cook the adductor muscle at the ends which are normally secured to the inside of the shells and this partial cooking may be objectionable before evisceration or further processing. Also, presently there is no direct control exercised over the extent or duration of exposure of the scallops to elevated temperatures before scallop impact, and the entire mass of scallops together with scallop meats ejected from their shells will be processed at the same time and at the same elevated temperatures thereby resulting in non-uniformity of end product and variation in the quality of the processed product. Often the temperature of the scallop may be so high as to be sufficient to cook the scallop before processing and the product may not qualify as a fresh product.
Apparatus and method for the processing of scallops have been found to be at least partially successful in which scallops are subjected, in a land-based facility to live steam while the scallops are moved through a housing on a conveyor while attempting carefully to control the injection of steam at a volume and temperature depending upon the nature or condition of the harvested scallops to be processed. The heated scallops usually open at least partially at an elevated temperature with the extent of the opening varying depending upon the type of scallops, its age and condition, shell density, and insulating properties caused by barnacles and encrustations. The mass of scallops have been subjected to substantially the same heat treatment for the same time interval with some of the scallop meats being discharged prematurely to become at least partially cooked with respect to the adductor muscles before being discharged to a vibrating table which will separate the meats from the shells with some of the meats having already been separated. During vibration, the scallop meats are separated from the shells and all of the meats, with some that are partially cooked, are commingled irrespective of the degree of cooking of the adductor muscle for removal to a cleansing location where sand and other particles are deposited before transfer of the scallop meats to an evisceration operation for removing the viscera from the adductor muscles.
It is an objective of this invention to provide an apparatus and method for use on a ship or in a land-based facility in which the scallops are progressively subjected simultaneously to an elevated temperature and vibration while travelling in a directed path of travel for shucking, and removing the scallop meats from prolonged exposure at the elevated temperature to avoid cooking the adductor muscles of the scallop meats.
Another objective of this invention is the provision of an apparatus in which scallops are introduced and conveyed along a directed path of travel while being subjected to displacement to expose the maximum surface area of the scallop to elevated temperatures and separation of the scallop meats progressively as they are removed from the shells to limit the exposure of the scallop meats to elevated temperatures, and removing the scallop meats from contact with heated scallops and shells.
Yet another objective of this invention is to provide an apparatus in which scallops are simultaneously heated and vibrated for exposure to elevated temperatures to remove the meat from the shells and progressively remove the scallop meats shortly after ejection from the shells to reduce the exposure time of the meats to elevated temperatures in order to avoid affecting or cooking the adductor muscles, and transporting the meats to an evisceration station for removal of the viscera from the adductor muscle.
Still a further objective of this invention is the provision of a method for processing scallops to remove the scallop meats by subjecting the scallops to an elevated temperature while agitating the scallops to expose the maximum scallop surface area to an elevated temperature to cause the meats to be removed from the shells, and progressively removing the meats from prolonged exposure to elevated temperatures to avoid affecting the adductor muscles in the scallop meats.
Other objectives and many of the attendant advantages of this apparatus for shucking scallops and the method of processing scallops will become more readily apparent to those skilled in the art of shucking bivalves from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which equivalents and modifications are contemplated in the attended claims.